Operation Shred Guitar III: The Shredding!

Hello all ye brave lads and lasses, and welcome to Operation Shred Guitar III: The Shredding! My name is Jake Popowski, and in this lesson I will teach what I consider the most challenging and yet rewarding operation shred guitar lesson yet!

Unlike the othertwo lessons, I won’t go as in depth on exactly how I wrote it (I will give some insight) but the bulk of this lesson will be spent explaining the different sections, and of course, showing you how to play them.

As with the other Operation Shred series lessons, be sure to practice everything you see here slowly and cleanly, until you can play it perfectly. There’s no point in walking before running, unless tripping is your thing! But seriously, no one has every become a decent guitarist by just playing fast right off the bat. So, with that aside, let’s begin.

The Night Approaches

The first thing to figure out when you are either composing or learning a solo, is which chords and notes are we soloing over? In the case of this song, the chord progression is fairly generic, bar one is just E5, bar two is D5, bar three is C5, and bar four is D5, however, on the second strumming of D5 in bar four the 5(A) is flatted to Ab. In my mind it added a little tension, and mixed it up just a bit so it wasn’t so generic.

To begin the solo, on the third hit of the hi hat in the intro, do a pick slide on the lower two or three strings for about quarter note, and then just slide down from around the twelfth fret on the low E with your fretting hand until the beginning of bar 2. I’m not going to tab this part, because it’s pretty self explanatory, and the notation wouldn’t make any sense anyways.

After the pick slide intro, here’s where the fun begins! The first section in this solo is pretty simple, I consider it somewhat in the style of George Lynch.

(If you need help understanding the notation symbols I used in my tab, please refer to the other operation shred lessons, or any of the other many of tab reading lessons on here)

Running From the Shredder

Now it’s about time for lick 2. This is the second most terrifying run in the lesson. It’s a combination alternate picking and legato run, with some palm muting thrown in for good measure. This lick is a huge nod to the master Paul “Pablo Gilberto” Gilbert, as well as to the big haired shredders of the ’80s. It ends with some big bends, and of course, big vibrato.

You know what they say, the bigger the vibrato the bigger the… Ergh, I’ll let you fill in the blanks! Anyways, after getting our minds out of the gutter, the sewer, and the strip club, we return to our lesson. Make sure you practice this lick really slowly, until you have it firmly under your fingers. As a certain sponge with square pants would say if he taught guitar, make sure you firmly grasp it… Before speeding up that is! Without further ado, I give thee lick two!

We’ll Be Safe in the Arcade!

I aptly named this section “We’ll be safe in the arcade,” because the first thing that comes to mind when I hear this section is a vintage arcade action or maybe racing game’s soundtrack. The lick first two bars of the lick are right out of Malmsteen‘s playbook, and the end is a simple sliding lick. This is probably the easiest section of the whole solo. Not much detail to go in here really.

Final Showdown!

This end lick is by far the most terrifying lick to date in any of the Operation Shred Guitar lessons. So, before we begin, make sure you have at least 2 changes of boxer shorts, and around 15 gallons of UNHOLY WATER m/! The hardest part of the lick is transferring from the beginning tapping part on the high E and B strings, down to a string skipping tapping run starting on the low E.

Make sure you practice this very slowly, and preferably with a clean tone, before you attempt it at full speed. The lick almost defeated me, but alas it twas slayed before mine mighty battle axe yippee! If you’re feelin’ lucky, punk, proceed to this lick with extreme caution.

If you have survived the final mega lick, you are a true warrior! Please pat yourself on the back now. If you struggled with it, keep at it! The most important lesson I’ve ever learned on guitar is if anyone ever asks you if you can play something, say yes. Anyone can learn anything, it’s just a matter of time. If you go into it with that attitude, you will become a better player than you ever thought possible.

In closing I will leave ye with a video of me playing the solo so you get an idea of what it sounds like, and a link to the guitar pro. As I always say, keep shredding mofos! Until next time!

About the Author:Jake Popowski is an American guitar player, currently in the bands Doctor Snake Oil, and Damned Empire. He is available for session work on either guitar or bass. Contact him through private message on here if you are interested in either session work or private lessons.